Colossal corporation. New Brand Design, Inc. (NBD).
Executive summary.
This investigation was carried out to investigate the cause of the employees’ and suppliers’ business behavior in the new New Brand Design (NBD) facility in Western Asia. The report concludes that the cause of the employees’ behavior is culture-based. The report recommends a change in the management structure of the NBD facility and the importation of model employees from other facilities. The sensitization of both employees and suppliers is recommended. The report recommends that merit should be given in groups and not individually.
Introduction.
The CEO of Colossal Corporation, Janet Yoon, is concerned with the work professionalism of the people working with and in the New Brand Design (NBD) facility installed in western Asia. The local employees spend time chatting in the morning instead of working. A local heading, the hiring committee insisted on hiring his uncle. Suppliers in the Asia region fail to honor terms as specified in the contract. There is too much solidarity among workers that it affects the running of the company. They were unable to nominate an outstanding employee as directed by the company. Janet ordered an investigation to establish the reason for such tidings and the best way to solve them.
Explanations for employees and supplier behavior.
- Explanation for employee behavior.
Each country and part of the world has its cultural norms. These habits define their way of life, including their business relationships. Companies expanding to new areas move expecting the same standards of working as in their home areas, but they end up disappointed.
1.1 Chatting in the morning and coming late for meetings.
In this case, the business culture of these Western Asia people working for and with NBD can easily be explained by Hofstede’s six dimensions. The employees of NBD live in a society that advocates for collectivism, femininity, and indulgence. (Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, 2010). The employees are not aggressive, competitive, and do not seek achievement. These employees believe that their work and personal life are interconnected. They are comfortable as long they can get enough to live by. They also value living their life and enjoying it to the fullest. This is why they do not care about coming late for meetings and why they keep chatting in the morning instead of concentrating on work right away. Trompenaar and Hampden- Turner, 1997, in the dimension, universalism versus particularism, it explains the chatting and late-coming behavior of NBD’s employees, their relationships are more important than the rules
1.2 Failure to nominate a deserving employee of the year.
The locals in this community believe teamwork, that is to say, collectivism (Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, 2010), and are uncomfortable if one of them is selected for credit incase of achievement. They lack individualism, and this also affects their decision making and promotes laziness among employees. To these employees, the group is more important than the individual, so the selection of a particular individual to be rewarded is a violation of one of their most important beliefs.
1.3 Why the head of the hiring committee insisted on hiring his uncle.
This is an example of both collectivism and femininity. The head of the hiring committee believes in keeping relationships and caring for his family. Since he lives in a communitarianism setting, he does not see any ethical violation because he believes it is his duty to take care of one of his own.
- Explanation for supplier’s behavior.
2.1 Failure of suppliers to honor terms of the contract.
The suppliers contracted by NBD in Asia work on the basis of long term Orientation. They value lasting relationships, which is why they believe partners ought to stand by each other in the face of changes in market prices to ensure profitability on all sides, which is irrelevant to the contract’s specifications. Foreign partners always think in different ways than expected because of their culture (Deari, Kimmel, and Lopez, 2017). Specific actions during negotiation are understood differently by foreign partners; Signing of the contracts in this case, to the suppliers, might have meant a lasting brotherhood between their businesses and NBD. And brothers take care of each other.
Conclusion.
The employee and culture behavior is based on cultural differences in societies. Each society has a unique culture (Deari, Kimmel, and Lopez, 2007; Brown, 2001; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997). The NBD facility neglected the fact that the business culture of their home is different from the culture of Western Asia they had expanded to (Deari, Kimmel and Lopez, 2017). The employees lack ethical working skills. The new NBD facility in Western Asia is faced with a different business culture than the one it was used to in Europe. The NBD facility has failed to create an effective management structure that will ensure sufficient work output from the people of Western Asia.
Recommendations.
- The NBD facility needs to reconstruct a new management structure that ensures maximum output from its western Asian employees.
- Since the employees favor collectivism, they should be put to work in groups and competition encouraged among the groups. This way, the employees can slowly develop assertiveness, competition, and some bit of individualism.
- The company should import model employees from their facilities in Europe. These new employees from other facilities will provide an example of the working relationships of Colossal Corporation employees. The company should also take a select few of the Asian employees to their facilities in Europe. The Asian employees on coming back will act as role models to the other employees. This might help to stop the issue of chatting in the morning, collectivism, and reduce on femininity.
- The company should educate their employees on ethical Working skills to improve on individualism and reduce on indulgence. They should be told of the effect of their laziness to the company and how it will affect them eventually.
- Annual individual recognition should be dismissed; rather, the annual recognition should be based on the groups created among the employees. The best group is rewarded.
- The suppliers should be notified of how their insistence on sharing of losses affects the company’s profits and how it will affect them in the future if the company falls. The suppliers should clearly be informed of their relationship with NBD. However, a compromise should be made in cases of very large shifts in market prices that incur heavy losses to the suppliers. This should be done to maintain a healthy business relationship.
- Thorough research should be done in the future in case of further expansion.
References.
Trompenaars, F., and Hampden-Turner, N., 1997. Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business.
Brown, N., 2001. Edward T. Hall, Proxemic Theory, 1966. CSISS Classics. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/477h1rm
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., and Minkov, M., 2010. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Intercultural Cooperation and its importance for survival.
Deari, H., Kimmel, V., and Lopez, P., 2017. Effects of cultural differences in international business and price negotiation.